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18 Mar 16
The NHS will continue to need huge cash injections until the UK adopts a longer-term approach to health and wellness
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3 Mar 16
The Department of Health’s understanding of how to commission personalised adult social care services is outdated and inadequate, especially when money is tight, the National Audit Office has...
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2 Mar 16
The Department for Education is unable to track the effectiveness of £2.7bn being spent on a flagship free childcare programme, according to a report by the National Audit Office.
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23 Feb 16
Councils in England are planning to raise an additional £372m in revenue to fund social care pressures, according to a Local Government Association analysis – however, the organisation is...
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11 Feb 16
New insights into wellbeing suggest that a joined-up and enabling approach to services could be crucial
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4 Feb 16
Pension relief, paid at the marginal rate, disproportionately benefits high earners. A flat rate could release cash for arguably more deserving causes
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26 Jan 16
Government plans to shore up local authority social care budgets are not going to be sufficient. They might have to think again
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14 Jan 16
Four public sector watchdogs have confirmed that they will undertake joint inspections of services for vulnerable children this year in order to better assess provision in local areas.
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6 Jan 16
Two former health secretaries and the former Liberal Democrat care minister Norman Lamb have issued a joint call for a cross-party commission into the health and social care crisis.
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14 Dec 15
Councils with poorly performing children’s social services will have the departments taken over by other authorities or charities under plans set out by David Cameron today.
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11 Dec 15
Ongoing uncertainty over social care funding has the potential to derail efforts to get the NHS’s finances back into balance, the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s policy director has...
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11 Dec 15
The Care Quality Commission remains an ineffective regulator despite efforts to implement significant reforms since 2013, the Public Accounts Committee has concluded.
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9 Dec 15
A joint CIPFA-HFMA survey has found that opportunities presented by the Better Care Fund have been embraced enthusiastically. However, it needs clearer and simpler governance and monitoring...
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9 Dec 15
The health and care sector is demanding urgent Whitehall talks over what it says is a funding crisis despite Chancellor George Osborne authorising council tax increases to pay for provision.
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9 Dec 15
The NHS ombudsman has found that poor complaint handling in the health service mean that problems with care are not being uncovered in hospital investigations into avoidable harm or death.
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7 Dec 15
The flagship government project to bring health and social care funding together is being hindered by red tape that must be tackled if services are to be integrated, a CIPFA report has found.
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3 Dec 15
Plans to integrate health and social care provision in Scotland face significant risks that must be addressed if the reform is to improve how services are delivered, a report has found.
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2 Dec 15
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has warned that the government’s use of the new burdens doctrine, which is intended to ensure councils are not left out of pocket, “fails to reflect reality...
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30 Nov 15
What last week’s Spending Review meant for health and social care can be explained in just four numbers.
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26 Nov 15
The chancellor is enjoying a lucky run in having significantly better than expected public finances to rely on in planning the next five years.
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25 Nov 15
Councils will be allowed to increase council tax by up to 2% in order to fund adult social care, chancellor George Osborne announced in his Spending Review today.
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23 Nov 15
Half of council finance directors are less confident in the ability to deliver savings than they were a year ago, a CIPFA survey ahead of this week’s Spending Review has found.
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16 Nov 15
Residential care standards in England are threatened by low staffing levels and poor quality training for carers.
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10 Nov 15
Public spending on education and economic development is set to fall to the lowest level on record by the end of the decade as spending shifts towards healthcare and provision for pensioners, a...
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10 Nov 15
Former health secretary Stephen Dorrell has called for social care and public health funding to be protected in the forthcoming Spending Review, saying to cut these budgets while increasing NHS...